This blog follows the progress of Milo & Madeline Stiles, born in June 2008 at 25 weeks, 2 days gestation, for their friends and family and anyone else who'd like to know about life with premature kids.
Please visit http://www.altabatessummit.org/nicuedu/fac.html and consider making a donation to assist NICU families at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Lucky 13

I'd like to kick off this week by giving special thanks to Auntie Annette, newly wed and primary nurse extraordinaire. Annette was kind enough to swing by for several hours on Saturday to allow Elaine and I the chance to go grab some dinner and head to a movie. Thankfully, Annette didn't run screaming from the house despite the fact that the kids seemed to be having "one of those days." Of course, they were perfect today.

I talked a bit about all the upcoming doctors visits in the last post, and so far we've knocked out a few. Actually, the area pediatricians have run out of the second dose of flu vaccine, so that spared M&M a trip to the doc and a round of shots. They were OK with that - as near as I can tell. Milo celebrated by cooing and farting, Maddy did pretty much the same.

Milo did head to Childrens' Hospital for his feeding study last week, and the good news is that the boy has finally made it to 13 lbs. Better yet, he's not aspirating milk when he feeds. Sometimes when he eats, he lets milk collect in the back of his throat, and it causes him to make a raspy, gurgly sound. The therapist examining him thinks he does it as a form of play -- apparently he likes the way it sounds or feels and he's doing it for fun. That sounds like our boy.

M & M at play together - 1/27/09

Maddy tries solids - 1/19/09

In other news, Maddy gave solid food a whirl back on the 19th and the results were mixed. We gave her some rice cereal in milk, and she pretty much pushed it right back out at us. On the plus side, we have the above picture which is pretty cute. We think we'll have more luck on the next attempt: we've been giving Maddy her reflux medication by spoon and she really seems to like it. That seems like a good sign. But, there's no big rush and we're not going to push it for now. Remember, the babies are still technically less than 5 months old *corrected age, so there's no real hurry.

By the way, Milo tried solids at his feeding study with similar results.

Milo spends a little quality time with his toy monkey.

Maddy & Mom making dinner - 1/28/09

Maddy has started to like riding around in the baby carrier. She's not as in to it as Milo (who loves it all the time), but she's definitely warming up to it. The baby carriers make for an easy way to keep M & M close by without tying up our hands. The down side is that they are getting heavier. Maddy is easily a couple pounds more than Milo, so it's a akin to having a very fragile, awkward 20 lb weight strapped to you for an hour or so at a time.

Hell week is upon us! The kids will go for a pulminologist visit tomorrow (Mon.) and Milo will head to Childrens' for his hernia surgery Wednesday morning at 0600. His surgery will happen early that day, so look for a post sometime Wednesday for an update on his progress. This type of surgery is pretty minor and normally is done on an out-patient basis. But, because of Milo's medical history, he'll be held overnight for observation. One of us will be there from admission to discharge to keep the little guy company. To cap it all off, the babies will head to see Dr. Parker for their monthly Synagis shot on Friday.

*I threw in a link to explain corrected age, because a lot of folks have asked about it. In a nutshell, "corrected age" is the age M&M would be if they were born on their due date (Sept. 24, 2008). Preemies DO NOT get a developmental jump on term babies just because they were born early. In fact, it's accurate to say just the opposite. While term babies are maturing in utero in the equivalent of a quiet, sensory deprivation chamber, preemies are struggling along in an isolette, with wires and gizmos keeping them alive and growing. Not so ideal. Even though M&M are actually over 7 months old now, they are actually developmentally the same as 4-month-olds, because that's how old they'd be if they were born on time. Based on that, they're developmentally right on schedule.